Friday, December 09, 2005

IMS: Silver Bullet or Poisoned Chalice?

The current world order in the telecom world is under threat, with the carriers under pressure from the online upstarts and vendors in danger of being usurped by more traditional IT firms, attendees at the IMS: Blueprint for an Applications Revolution conference in London heard today.

Four Horsemen of the IP Apocalypse? Apocalypse Now? Graham must have seen one of Rich Shockey's forward looking presentations ;-)

But Poisoned Chalice? Chalice? Chalice? This reminds of one of the best and funniest movies I have ever seen (maybe because it was one of the first I saw) - The Court Jesterwith Danny Kaye:

Here the full sequence from (god bless) Wikipedia:

Hubert: I've got it! The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true! Right?

Griselda: ...but there's been a change: they broke the chalice from the palace...

Hubert: They broke the chalice from the palace?

Griselda: ...and replaced it. With a flagon.

Hubert: A flagon?

Griselda: With the figure of a dragon.

Hubert: Flagon with a dragon.

Griselda: Right.

Hubert: ...but did you put the pellet with the poison in the vessel with the pestle?

Griselda: No! The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon! The vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true!

Hubert: The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon the vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true.

Griselda: Just remember that!

Now I finally know why the discussions in ETSI TISPAN on IMS simulation and emulation sound so familiar to me ;-)

Anyway, I am sorry I missed this conference, it seem to be a lot of fun, there is another gem on IMS by the keynote speaker Malcom Wardlaw from BT:

While it's primarily been the familiar names in the frame to land carrier IMS system deals, that could easily change over the coming five years or so, stated keynote speaker Malcolm Wardlaw, vice president of Mobility, Intelligence & Applications at BT Group plc (NYSE: BT - message board; London: BTA).

Wardlaw is one of the U.K. carrier's key executives in the development of its next generation network, the 21CN, and a big IMS fan. "IMS is a fantastic architecture that will allow us to make some major steps and create new services and experiences for our customers," he told the 150 conference delegates. (See BT Calls for IMS Support.)